To upgrade from my E8400 or not? Suggestions/advice?

[Fashs]

Hi All,

I've been looking into this for quite a while now, and the more i research... the more i worry that i'm buying a V8 when all i need is a push bike. I need others help and any positive suggestions on what I can do to upgrade my pc or even if i need to.

My PC is mainly used for audio work ( Acid 7 pro ) and light gaming. Really all i use it for is to play wow (which i know needs a damp cloth to run it these days) but i do plan to run Diablo 3. Of course i want both games to run well and look great. But i don't want to go overboard.

This is my current setup.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 – Factory Fan
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P For INTEL 775
Memory: 2 x 1GB DDR2 RAM XMS2 PC2-8500 1066 MHz
Harddisk: WD Raptor 74GB SATA HDD 16MB 10KRPM + 2 x 500gb 5400rpm drives
GPU: 9800gtx
PSU: 750W Titan Silent Power Supply
OS: Windows XP

In regards to the video card, i just bought a SAPPHIRE 6950 2GB TOXIC Edition which i hope to switch to a 6970 so thats sorted 🙂

I do plan to get a SSD for my core 3 programs ( Acid,wow,D3 ) and getting new 2nd storage drives... cause, man.. mine are tiny!

If required, i want to spend around $500 on the "brains" of the pc... or less if required. As i said, if i wouldn't get any benefits from a i5 2500k. Why bother?

I'm not fussed with either INTEL or AMD.

Oh, btw... i get most of my gaming fixes from my PS3, xbox360 and wii ( that is gathering dust!).

Thanks for any and all replies! I love advice!

 

[lehtv]

I think your CPU is fine for what you do. It's a bit borderline for a 6950 but should work fine. If it's in your budget though, I wouldn't hold it against you to go with i5-2400-2500K + Asrock Z68 Pro3 + G.skill 2x4GB 1333mhz, totalling about $350. This would allow you to also use the SSD in Sata 6gb/s.

The SSD will improve desktop use the most. I'd recommend Crucial M4 64GB. For more storage look at Samsung F3 1TB 7200RPM or some of the 1.5-2TB 5400RPM drives that offer better GB/$ but are slower.

If you do audio work as an enthusiast/professional, you ought to have a discrete soundcard IMO

 

[Bonesdad]

agree with above...any plans to upgrade to Win 7? At least doubling your memory should also help.

 

[Zap]

Hello Fashs, and welcome to AnandTech Forums.

2500K + Asrock Z68 Pro3 + G.skill 2x4GB 1333mhz
...
The SSD will improve desktop use the most. I'd recommend Crucial M4 64GB.

That's a great suggestion on the CPU/mobo/RAM. For SSD, I'd actually go with a larger one if there is sufficient budget.

Oh yeah, and upgrade to Windows 7, because it'll help the SSD.

 

[lehtv]

I don't think a 128GB SSD is worth twice as much as a 64GB one even though it is twice as big. The main thing is to speed up your OS and the main programs, and those will fit on the 64GB fine. On the other hand, a 128GB SSD could (I think) be set up as 64GB system + 64GB cache.

 

[vailr]

If you wanted to try overclocking the E8400, a P45 chipset board with DDR3 might give better performance than your P35 board. A Windows 7 upgrade would also be my recommendation.

 

[mfenn]

Definitely upgrade to Windows 7 as others have said. I also can't fault you for going with the i5 build that lehtv recommended. Honestly though, the only upgrade your core platform (CPU/mobo/RAM) needs is some more memory. You could add 2x2GB of DDR2 800 like this Mushkin for $43 and notice a nice improvement in usability.